Thor

***1/2

If there’s a fault to Thor it’s that it feels like two different movies smooshed together into one ying-yang narrative. One of these films is a standard superhero origin story, which is, in fact, part of grander tapestry that will be realized next summer in The Avengers, and the other is a dynamic drama about family and duty and the fate of a kingdom. One of these is very paint by numbers; the other is given a relevant gravitas befitting an epic stage tragedy.

It was an unusual choice to select Kenneth Branagh to direct Thor, who along with Iron Man and Captain America makes up the core trinity of the Avengers super-team. Branagh, known predominately for his screen adaptations of Shakespeare plays like Henry V, Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing, brings these considerable resources to bear in painting the God of Thunder’s life on Asgard, a mythical realm where the Norse gods dwell. Thor (played by Chris Hemsworth) believe he is ready to be king, his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) is not so sure, and his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) seems unusually shifty.

But when Thor is banished to Earth for jumping the gun to start a war with the Frost Giants, the family psychodrama takes a backseat to the paint-by-numbers superhero origin, and the not-suitable stuffing of Easter egg references of Marvel movies past and future. Clark Gregg reprises his role as Agent Coulson from the Iron Man movies, and is the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent supervising all the other-worldly stuff afoot in the New Mexico desert. Jeremy Renner appears briefly as Clint Barton, better know to the comic book mafia as The Avengers’ archer in residence, Hawkeye.

Aside from all the superhero drama, Thor encounters a lovely human scientist named Jane (Natalie Portman), her sarcastic sidekick Darcy (Kat Dennings) and their mentor Dr. Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård). This aspect of the film is probably the most underdeveloped in an already loaded script that still clocks in at just over two hours. We’re supposed to believe that in two and a half days Thor falls in love with Jane, discovers the value of mortal existence, and learns the lessons of humility and self-sacrifice that his father sent him to Earth to learn. Possible, I guess, but I don’t feel that the film gives this aspect the proper time to develop naturally.

Of course, technically the film is an achievement all its own. Asgard is beautifully realized thanks to master production designer Bo Welch, a seamless mish-mash of futuristic Cloud City and old school medievalism; they’ve got both horses and temporal portholes. After all, Thor reminds us that Asgard is a place where magic and science are the exact same thing. The effects are outstanding and the worlds that Thor explores beyond our mortal realm blend very well with the real world we know. The film is vivid and colourful and jumps off the screen, but it doesn’t overwhelm the humans in their make-up and costumes.

The cast is very solid. Hemswroth makes a convincing Thor in both physicality and personality. He has a commanding presence, but is able to show some humanity, but I’m not sure that the film tests him as much as it could have. Thor lacks the same kind of personality crutch as say Tony Stark, or a pessimistic you lose when you win fate like Peter Parker. Hiddleston does snivelling well, but I have a feeling that the Loki’s true villain potential has been left to be explored in The Avengers. Hopkins, meanwhile, finds a descent balance between scenery chewing and the hyper-reality of playing an old world god.

The DVD includes some simple features, like the barebones “Road to the Avengers,” which doesn’t tell you anything that you couldn’t have gotten from a movie spoiler site three months ago. A commentary by Branagh offers some interesting insight into the filmmaking process and there are a couple of gems in the deleted scenes, including a warm, brotherly moment between Loki and Thor that I wish had stayed in the film. It might have made Loki’s later machinations much more impacting to see the brothers in a rare friendly moment.

As a film franchise, Thor definitely has potential. It would have been nice had in this first outing the film hadn’t been weighed down with all this Avengers preamble, but in this respect it’s a crutch that Thor shares with Iron Man 2. I will say that I warmed more to Thor in its second viewing. Perhaps the characters were more familiar now, or I was able to appreciate it on its own merits. Still, as superhero movies go, Thor demonstrates above average achievement and dedication. Hopefully when the eventual sequel rolls around, Thor might be able to stand on his own.

TIFF - Black Swan

Rating: ****

If there was a hot ticket at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival it was Black Swan, the new psychological thriller from Darren Aronofsky about a ballerina driven mad by Swan Lake. Well, that’s not a completely accurate or valid description of the plot, but as an elevator pitch it’s not bad, and it probably has your attention if it didn’t already. A compelling and exciting work, Black Swan will definitely make you think about ballet as more than the bear in the little car (Homer Simpson reference. Sorry.)

At the heart of the film is an effective, but not astounding, performance by Natalie Portman as Nina, a ballerina of obvious talent, but is perhaps too controlled to really flourish in a leading role. Nina gets a chance to prove herself when cast in a new version of Swam Lake, but unlike perhaps more blander versions of the ballet, company director Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) has taken the step to cast the same dancer as both the White Swan and the Black Swan.

Aronofsky has fun with themes of duplicity, exploring out darker sides, and suffering for our art. But despite that kind of weighty considerations, it seems that Aronofsky is having a good time. At the very least, despite Black Swan’s shadowy sides, Aronofsky seems a little freer, or at the very least he had a little more money and time to play with as compared to his last film, The Wrestler. What’s interesting is that where as The Wrestler featured wonderfully drawn characters in a typical redemption story, Black Swan features typical characters in a thriller that weaves and bobs and keeps you guessing.

Yes friends, Black Swan keeps you guessing. Does Nina have a doppelganger out there? Is the one other ballerina that’s trying to be friendly with her really trying to undermine her? What’s the deal with Nina’s crazy, controlling mother? All interesting questions in what could be described as a “ballet made me crazy” movie. It’s a mystery of the mind, to what degree is Nina crazy or is their really somebody in the company that’s out to get her. It’s like Inception but without all that dream stealing hooey.

Portman does reasonably well as the ballerina in the mouth of madness, although the degree to which you believe her ability as a prima ballerina was a matter of debate for a few aficionados. Basically, Nina just felt a little too bland, and despite that being the pre-eminent trait of the character, it was really hard to get beyond just how really vanilla she was. Mila Kunis, to the contrary, shows a lot of spark as Lily, but again she’s kind of the wild child and there doesn’t seem to be much more going on with her then that. Winona Ryder makes a splash as the deposed prima ballerina, and she is rather brilliant in a Joan Crawford, “no wire hangers” kind of way.

The story though is multilayered and multidimensional, and leaves you guessing over just how crazy Nina is till the bitter end. It certainly left me guessing and I was enthralled with where exactly the end result would lie. Aronofsky isn’t overly pushy, nor does he seem overly concerned with pushing the envelope as he knows that a little does a lot. A little double take here, a quick flash there and your suddenly wondering if whether Nina is seeing her own dark reflection or whether Lily is it’s living embodiment.

Black Swan works hard to develop a tone and style that’s really engrossing. Even the most ardent ballet-hater will have to admit that the film is captivating. Aronofsky really films the dancing in a visceral, almost intrusive way, and shows the power and influence of the dance for all its blood, sweat and tears. The lesson is obvious a statement in suffering for your art or killing yourself for your art, whatever you like, but it’s a potent message just the same.

As he did with making professional wrestling a thing of poetic and tragic beauty, Aronofsky has now turned ballet into an arduous, torturous test of the mind and of the soul. Of course, many have said this for years, but in the case of Black Swan we mean it in the best possible way.

Brothers

Rating: ***

For what’s supposed to be a personal family drama, Brothers is as maddeningly unoriginal in its plot as it is in its title. It can be as cold as the winter weather of the film’s setting and as distant as the Rocky Mountains in the background of all the scenery. Further complicating things is the fact that as much as Tobey Maguire can ably fill the boots of your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man, seeing him play a hardened Marine captain taxed even my nimble ability to suspend disbelief. Kind of corny but still occasionally compelling, Brothers follows a simple plot, but mixes sporadic bouts of serious drama with its well-worn characters. And in case you didn’t already realize this, the trailer pretty much gives the ending away.

Maguire plays Sam Cahill, a respected soldier about to return to Afghanistan for another tour of duty. In one of those cosmic coincidences that only happen in movies, Sam’s brother Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal) is released from prison mere days before Sam disembarks. While in Afghanistan, Sam’s chopper is shot down and he is presumed dead with everyone else onboard. Sam’s wife Grace (Natalie Portman) is suddenly faced with the prospect of raising their two girls (Bailee Madison and Taylor Geare) alone, but she finds returning to a normal life without Sam difficult to say the least. Listless, and without much going for him, Tommy steps in help Grace and the girls cope with Sam’s passing. Or make that supposed passing, as the captain is found alive, rescued from captivity after being held by insurgents.

It’s hard to tell which character is more cookie-cutter: Sam or Tommy. One’s a good old boy Marine with a dark side, and the other’s a misdirected bad boy with a heart of gold. Actually, the father played by grizzled 1890s prospector Sam Shepard is probably the most clichéd. A retired army vet that thinks the world of the son that enlisted and serves his country and has no time at all for the loser son with a criminal record. To be fair, the actors do hold some surprises in their performances. Despite the blatant archetypes that they play, both Maguire and Gyllenhaal hone finely nuanced performances where you can believe them as brothers. Portman is probably the shining star of the film, playing the grieving widow with neither over the top melodrama nor grating histrionics.

Overall, the family drama of Brothers works well. Certain scenes and moments tend to carry with them a genuine feeling of realism; times when your not thinking about how nicely divided the ground is between Sam and Tommy. Frankly, it would have been better if director Jim Sheridan had expanded on that and given us more on the homefront rather than continually take us away to Sam’s horrible POW experience at the hands of Afghan insurgents. There were so many scenes that practically covered the same ground again and again in regards to his treatment and they serve to do nothing other than make you say to yourself “Geez those Taliban are awful.” By the time Sam comes home haunted, we as the audience are practically haunted along with him. For me it would have been much more dramatically interesting if we had seen Sam leave and then see him come home broken. Leaving us wondering what broke him and how scared is he?

Despite the scripting issues and the Mad Libs characterization, there is something admirable in Brothers for the way it gently brings the war home. So many films made about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq focus on the politics or the battles in country, only Brothers and last year’s The Lucky Ones seem to really seriously address how soldiers may cope with their experiences once back to what was once their normal life. Sheridan may be channelling Tennessee Williams at times with how the film plays out with a Blanche DuBois-style meltdown, but his heart was in the right place. Plus he had the help of three very tremendous actors to bring the characters to vivid life rather than potentially let things veer too deeply soap opera territory.

The Other Boleyn Girl

Rating: **1/2

As a work of historical fiction, The Other Boleyn Girl is somewhat lacking. As a romantic melodrama, it can’t possibly come close to the R-rated exploits of the BBC’s The Tutors. As a movie in and of itself, it’s over-produced, over-wrought and adds little in freshness or value to a story we already know by heart: England’s King Henry VIII was a dog, he (literally) axed his second wife and probably scarred his daughter Elizabeth to the point she couldn’t trust a man enough to marry him. Also, having good-looking, buff actors play Henry… kind of disingenuous. I mean unless he was wearing a fat suit in those portraits.

Based on the book by Philippa Gregory, the movie tells the story of the lesser-known Mary Boleyn (Scarlett Johansonn), who always stood in the shadow of her more ambitious older sister Anne (Natalie Portman). When Henry VIII (Eric Bana) comes calling to the countryside, the girls’ uncle, the Duke of Norfolk (David Morrissey), sees opportunity. He puts Anne forward to catch the King’s attention to become his mistress, but it’s Mary that catches his fancy instead. Instead of moving on with her life and being content that she dodged the bullet of being used and abused by the aristocracy, Ann plots and conspires to not only usurp her little sis’ but the (then) present Queen of England as well.

Now I know that this was a whole other time and all, but this movie was a little more misogynistic than I normally like in my cinematic entertainment. A lot of time and energy is spent on the men sitting around talking about how they’re planning to pimp out their young, female family members in order to satiate the lust of the king while enhancing their power and position in the court. Instead, I think it would have been more interesting to play that off the actual Boleyn girls and how they react to all this. We get hints of that with Mrs. Boleyn played by Kristen Scott Thomas, but really not enough to satisfy me.

And honestly when you’re doing something like this, a dramatization of events unfolded 400 years ago, you got to bring something new. I mean considering that Henry and Anne was the Spitzer Hooker-gate scandal of its day, people have been talking about this for a while. As I said earlier, we’ve already seen sexy-Henry in the softcore version of The Tudors, which the very PG-13 Boleyn Girl can’t hope to duplicate. And while we’re talking about acknowledgment, how about a little regard about how thoroughly unbuff Henry VIII really was? I’m not even saying “fat suit” but maybe a scene where he’s munching a big old chicken wing, asking for seconds.

As for the acting, there isn’t that much to say. Portman vamps it up as Anne, which is actually a good look on her until she becomes all whiny and desperate in the waning days of her stint as Queen. Johansonn’s Mary should really be called “blandy” because it really is her one overriding trait. She is also whiny and codependent, but her arc is slightly interest due to a streak of independence she begins to display after being dumped by Henry for her sister. Speaking of the big man (so to speak), Bana is really terribly boring as Henry. At least Tudors Jonathan Rhys Meyers has some fire in his belly, this guy is a Jeff Lebowski short of being totally disinterested.

An uninspired effort does little and offers relatively nothing new to a familiar narrative The Other Boleyn Girl bored me. For a quality Boleyn tale check out Richard Burton and Geneviève Bujold in Anne of the Thousand Days.

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

Rating: ****

Some movies aimed at kids are just so stupid, and I don’t just mean this from an adult’s point of view but I think that they literally make our kids dumber. This need not necessarily be the case, for there are several examples of family entertainment being accessible and satisfying for all age levels, even though it’s directed at a younger audience specifically. Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium is an example of this and even though it was released some time ago now, I still feel it was one of the best family films of the year. It got pretty beat up in the reviews and IMDB rates it only a 6.2 out of 10, which is pretty brutal considering that I absolutely loved it.

Mr. Magorium (Dustin Hoffman) is a 243-year-old toy manufacturing entrepreneur who sells his creations in a New York toy store. Mr. Magorium after a life of mirth-making and avid shoe wearing is reaching the end of his life and is putting his affairs in order. He hires Henry Weston (Jason Bateman), an account he nicknames “Mutant” on the assumption that the route of the word “account” is “a counting mutant”, to put the stores financial books in order. Mr. Magorium’s intention is to leave the store to his employee Molly Mahoney (Natalie Portman), who’s unsure about inheriting a magical toy store, especially when she’s trying to get back to her first love: music.

This movie is about simple delights and simple charm. It’s a story about characters trying to find something with a moral of self-realization. It can get kind of dark, but dark need not necessarily be all bad. As we saw earlier this year with The Bridge to Terabithia, there are valuable lessons in the dark, not that Mr. Magorium is like something out of Frank Miller though. It’s just that in the midst of all the silliness in the trailer, you would never guess that there’s a semi-serious message about life, death and finding the things that make you happy while you’re in between.

Leading the way in a wonderfully weird performance is Dustin Hoffman. Now a guy like Hoffman in a part like this could easily rest on his laurels, but he’s friendly, heart-warming and just goofy enough to evade any claims of normality without any kind of creepiness. Portman is adorable as Mahoney and is the heart and soul of the movie; she plays well against Bateman who, as The Mutant, plays the straight man in the midst of all the zaniness. Rounding out the cast is Zach Mills as Eric, a lonely little boy that shows wisdom beyond his years. He’s also the narrator of the movie, delivering lines with the gentle, matter-of-fact manner of any kid telling a really interesting story.

I did actually have a problem with the final act as it just seemed that the magic in the film kind of slowly drained out of it on until the very end. The story seemed to stop at something of an abrupt note and doesn’t even offer a glimpse as to what happens after the credits role. A movie like this needs closure and something to give us more than the presumption that everyone lived happily ever after, we have to see it. I also have concern that in our cynical age the movie might be too earnest for people, but that’s there problem not the filmmakers’. Reading some message boards about this movie it disappoints me that whimsy seems to be such a disposable commodity in the world today.

But in the end I think that Mr. Magorium has a solid message that anyone can get something out of: “Life is an occasion, rise to it.” The material is beautifully handled and writer/director Zach Helm has a gifted touch for the handling of such fantastical material. I hope that when this movie comes out on DVD that the people will discover this and hail it with the praise it deserves: a true family classic with a timeless quality and a timeless message.